Kyrese Anderson dies in car while parents attend funeral

PALMETTO, Fla. (WTSP) - Crime scene tape is crumpled up beside the driveway in Palmetto where a 3-year-old boy was left inside a car for about three hours on Saturday.

So far, everything Manatee County detectives have uncovered indicates that what led up to the death of Kyrese Anderson was a tragic accident.

The family, who was in town from Lehigh Acres, dropped Kyrese and his young siblings off at a house on 5th Avenue E. in Palmetto with a babysitter before carpooling to a funeral.

They thought all the kids had made it safely inside before leaving the car in the driveway with Kyrese inside.

"They get back from the funeral several hours later," Dave Bristow with the Manatee County Sheriff's Office explains, "and they ask where the 3-year-old was, and the babysitter said, 'I thought he was with you?'"

By the time the family found the toddler and called paramedics, he had already passed away.

"With today's society the way it is, we're all busy multitasking, and it's a shame that things like this occur," says Brad Dykens, public education officer with Seminole Fire Rescue. "Education sometimes can bring it to the forefront of peoples' minds."

Experts recommend putting a purse or something in the backseat that will force you to look there, along with making a plan about who will get children out of the car. Many times, children are left inside hot cars because of miscommunication or forgetfulness.

"You have to take all the precautions to never leave a child, and I know that these people knew that," Bristow says about Kyrese Anderson's family. "There's no question they knew it and, again, it was just a very unusual, strange set of circumstances that led to this tragedy."

No charges have been filed at this point. Investigators are awaiting autopsy results. Family at the house on Sunday did not want to talk on-camera.